Cannot share photos in iOS 18

Restarting the iPhone and restarting my Wi-Fi router fixed it thx

Have you tried turning it off and on again? Not joking. Seriously. I had the exact same problem as described. Turned my iPhone off and back on and it worked fine

It's happening for me too, started on Dec 2 after update. Inconsistently can't send photos with Messages app on iPhone 13 and MacBook Air as others have described. I restarted both and it solved the problem (so far) on my phone but not on the computer.

I had the same "An error preparing photos resulted and cannot share photos at this time. Please try again later" .

As one post mentioned below if you go to iMessage first and select a picture(s) it will put them in the iMessage and send as before.

Still, come on Apple.....I'm a 20+ year die hard fan only owning Apple products and selecting picture(s) from your Photos library and then choosing where to send it was the default super easy method. Especially since you're usually scrolling through enjoying pictures then just want to share them.

Hopefully an update is coming. Not a fan of there redesign of Photos either. The screen now seems crowded and I'm on a fairly big phone, iPhone 13 PRO Max.

Hope an update is coming to at least fix the quick Photos to messaging bug......

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Of course dozens of times!!. Both soft and hard restart. It’s the very first thing everyone does when a computer starts acting weird.

Apple support had me reset settings, carrier setting, etc.

This issue is now submitted as a “ticket”. Support has a bulletin out that tells them to create tickets whenever this bug is reported. According to support, tickets go to the “engineers” to figure out.

Try turning off FaceTime and power cycling.

I am on 18.1.1 with iphone 15 pro

Two things:

If I start from the photos app and select a iphone photo and then select send via msg app - photo does not send

If I start from message app (not imessage) and select plus sign and then select photo app - photo will send.

Hope this helps debugging this problem.

Kind of ridiculous Apple goofed up Photos. I've been an Apple user for decades and touted Photos as practically as good but super easy to use compared to the discontinued Aperture professional program. This latest update has dropped the ball big time :(

I posted previously if starting an iMessage first then scanning through your albums or however you grab a picture in Photos seems to work but it seems many are still having problems.

The easier technique grabbing a picture in Photos then simply sending it wherever (email, iMessage, Facebook or Instagram, etc.) seems to be the problem maybe are having (this is when I noticed this glitch.)

I personally don't care for how they changed Photos but could adapt if this simple sending pictures or videos was fixed.

I have the same issue plus I can't receive photos from non-iPhones. All this since I upgraded to 18.1.1! My phone is iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Thinking more about this, the photos were sent from an iPhone but there were two non iPhones on the distribution list, as welll as some iPhones. I could not receive the pics but a couple iPhones could as well as non-iPhones. Very bizarre. An iPhone on the distribution list did receive the pics and successfully sent them to just me. But when I tried to send them to a non-iPhone the text failed, telling me to try again (didn't work). So I think it's related to the presence of non-iPhones when texting pictures.

I can't send HEIC files in Messages on my iPhone (iOS 18.1.1) nor on my Mac (MacOS Sequoia 15.1.1). If I convert the HEIC files to JPG, they send fine. What gives?!?! I have restarted both devices and it still does not work.

This is happening regardless of the internet connection. Multiple different routers, different locations, and via cell data.

Since 18.1.1 I can’t send pics even between iPhones in my family group! I see this issue being reported for earlier releases. You’d think they’d test to ensure this doesn’t happen in newer releases! It’s such a basic function!

the blue line simply stops moving! (And in the past I never even saw the blue line when sending pics.) I ended up sending as text.

I was not at home when I had the issue. I was on the 5G network and couldn’t send pics via the iPhone network.

the blue bar started moving across the screen and then simply stopped. Over an hour later I got the message that they could not be delivered.

Instead, I ended up sending the pics as text messages.

This happened THE DAY I updated to iOS 18.1.1 after waiting and sticking with 17!

I cannot send photos or videos via iMessage anymore.

i spoke to Apple Support for 90 minutes and was told it must be a “problem with the carrier”!

BS! It worked with 17!

I switched carriers, same exact problem. The customer service rep said she had never heard of this problem before!!!

What incredible incompetence!